Dear Friend of Indian Lake, Can’t believe it is time to start planning for the 2016 Nashville Hitmakers event. Again the event will be held at the Indian Lake High School Auditorium. This concert of original hit songs, performed live by the men and women who wrote them, promises to be another evening of great sounds, interesting stories of the song origins, and excellent musicianship. In addition to benefitting the Endowment Fund of the Indian Lake Watershed Project, proceeds will provide funding for the Indian Lake Schools’ Music program. This year proves to be just a very special concert since it is our FIFTH Annual event. Our headliner will again be the multi-talented Even Stevens, who will be returning to his alma mater to perform for us. Even has lived the songwriter’s life in Nashville, where he moved after his military service. A long-time environmentalist, Even has always enjoyed the history of the Indian Lake area and spending time on the lake whenever he’s able to return to his roots. Just a few of the many songs he’s written that you may know include the 15-million selling “When You’re in Love With a Beautiful Woman” by rock’s Dr. Hook, Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night” & “Drivin’ My Life Away”, Conway Twitty’s “Crazy in Love” (also recorded by Kim Carnes & Joe Cocker), “Suspicions” by Rabbitt as well as Tim McGraw, and the Kenny Rogers hit, “Love Will Turn You Around”. The Songwriter-In-The-Round format includes several of Even’s talented, long-time friends who I’m sure you will recognize. All have won top awards: Grammy, Dove, Billboard and CMA Awards. This highly entertaining show is presented annually in Biloxi, Mississippi for St Jude’s Hospital, in Lebanon, Tennessee for McClain Christian Academy, and at Songwriter Festivals in Martha’s Vineyard and Key West. Our Fundraiser will take place at the Indian Lake High School Auditorium on Saturday, July 23rd, 7:00 P.M. For ticket information contact the ILWP office, 937-593-2946, ext. 122. Don’t delay to purchase. After the success of the past 4 years’ concerts, we anticipate a sell out crowd. Please plan to attend, bring some friends and enjoy a gala evening, while supporting YOUR Indian Lake Watershed Project and the students of Indian Lake Schools Music Department. Pastor Jim Ellington, President Lewistown native Even Stevens will return as headliner How does a preacher's kid from a small farm town in for the 2016 Nashville Hitmakers Show, a fundraiser Ohio arrive in a beat-up mail truck with forty bucks in his for Indian Lake Watershed Project & Indian Lake Schools’ pocket, survive on the cold lonesome streets of Nashville Music Departments. The concert begins at 7pm at Indian and end up a BMI Songwriter of the Century? Even pulls Lake High School on Saturday, July 23. back the curtain for a peek at the music business in his book, Someday I'm Gonna Rent This Town, Recently inducted into the Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of revisiting the rejection, false promises, inspiring creative Fame, Even’s acceptance speech was filled with references characters and money-grubbing scum suckers he met to his Ohio upbringing and friendships, as well as his along the way: The Tina Turner "mistake".....Hey! experiences making it as a Songwriter in Nashville. His Clint Eastwood's at the door!.....and other life-changing opening remark as the first 2015 recipient was... brushes with the famous and infamous. From his I’m humbled to think I’m part of such a "Hippie" days in San Francisco to creating Dr. Hook's great club. For Stevens, who co-wrote When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman and Eddie Rabbitt's I Love A Rainy Night, the world of an several of Eddie Rabbitt’s best-known aspiring songwriter is laid bare for all so see. tunes, the grand evening really put things in perspective. His first songwriter gatherings Welcome to the Odd World of Even Stevens! in Nashville were a little more humble. “The town was magic then,” he recalled. “At the Bluebird (Cafe), they do in-the-round. Well, we did in-the-round in people’s houses every night. You were always welcome. Hooking up with the then-unknown Eddie Rabbitt, Even began collaborating on songs that would soon make his friend a superstar: “Drivin’ My Life Away,” “I Love A Rainy Night,” “Step By Step” and “Suspicions” (BMI’s 1980 Country Song of the Year). Even penned the international hit, “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman”, recorded by Dr Hook and cowrote: Conway Twitty (“Crazy In Love”), Ricky Skaggs (“Lovin’ Only Me”), Lacy J. Dalton (“Black Coffee”) and the Oak Ridge Boys (“No Matter How High”). “Love Will Turn You Around” by Kenny Rogers was named ASCAP Country Song of the Year in 1982. This marks the 5th Anniversary Show for Nashville Hitmakers, to date bringing seventeen #1 Hit Songwriters to our area to entertain, inform and amuse our actively-engaged audiences. Bring a friend and come enjoy an evening filled with great stories, favorite music and performances. For tickets, call (937)593-2946 x122. EVEN STEVENS Even’s songwriting career spans many stylistic borders, from the international hit, “When You’re In Love With A Beautiful Woman” by rock’s Dr. Hook, to the three week running #1 Pop hit, “ I Love A Rainy Night” by long time partner and superstar, Eddie Rabbitt. He has accumulated an unprecedented 53 BMI Awards, which includes: 14 Pop Awards - 26 Country Awards - 1 Five Millionaire Award - 1 Four Millionaire Award - 1 Three Millionaire Awards - 4 Two Millionaire Awards - and 6 One Millionaire Awards. The Grammy and 2015 Songwriter Hall of Fame inducted composer has written the ACM Best Country Song winner, “Love Will Turn You Around” & ASCAP Song of the Year by Kenny Rogers and won BMI’s coveted Robert J. Burton Award, Song of the Year for “Suspicions” by Eddie Rabbitt, earning him the distinction as a BMI “Songwriter of the Century.” Some of the artists who have recorded his songs: Joe Cocker, Tim McGraw, Engelbert Humperdinck, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, Mac Davis, Roger Miller, George Jones, Elvis Costello, Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton, Sammi Smith, Conway Twitty, Brenda Lee, J.D. Souther, Stonewall Jackson, Marylin McCoo, Blake Shelton, Steel Pulse, Tom Jones, Roger Whittaker, Lacy J. Dalton, Stella Parton, The Oak Ridge Boys, Mickey Gilley, Kenny Rogers, Marie Osmond, Crystal Gayle, Glen Campbell, Alabama, Pam Tillis, Bobby Bare, Barbara Mandrell, Eddie Rabbitt, Dr. Hook, Kim Carnes, The London Symphony, Julio Iglesias and even The Chipmunks! Currently, Even is on the air in Nashville every Sunday night at 8pm Central Time hosting the radio show, THE ORIGINALS, on Hippie Radio Nashville, 94.5FM. Featuring the original demos of the biggest hit songs old and new, with interviews with the legendary songwriters who wrote them, THE ORIGINALS gives you an insider’s view into the fascinating world of songwriting. The show can be listened to in real-time online anywhere in the world by searching Hippie Radio Nashville, then clicking on the “Listen To It Live” button at 8pm on Sunday nights! Even’s book has been released, on Nashville and his music career titled, “Someday I’m Gonna Rent This Town!” and is published by Heritage Builders Publishing. Autographed copies will be available after the concert. MAC DAVIS Mac Davis has established himself as an all around entertainer: songwriter, singer, film and stage actor, T.V. and radio personality.... performer and legend. He has enjoyed success in almost every facet of show business, starting in the late sixties all the way to the present. Born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, Mac moved to Atlanta, Georgia after he graduated from high school, and attended Emory University and Georgia State College. Inspired by another Lubbock boy, Buddy Holly, Mac formed a band of his own while in college, and moonlighted playing fraternity parties, high school hops, and local clubs around Atlanta. He also worked for the Georgia State Board of Probation, and later continued his music interests as a regional sales & promotion manager for Vee Jay Records, followed by a stint with Liberty Records’ publishing division. In the late sixties, Mac’s songwriting talent paid off: he wrote several hits for Elvis Presley, including “In the Ghetto”, “Memories”, “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “A Little Less Conversation”, which was re-released in 2002 and became a #1 hit in 26 countries around the world. Nominated three times for Grammy Awards, he has written hits for Kenny Rogers (“Somethin’s Burnin”), Bobby Goldsboro (“Watchin’ Scotty Grow”), Gallery (“I Believe in Music”), O.C. Smith, Freddie Hart, Ray Price, Low Rawls, Dolly Parton, Rascal Flatts, and many others. Hit songs that he recorded himself include, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me”, “Stop and Smell the Roses”, “One Hell of a Woman”, “Hooked on Music”, “My Bestest Friend”, “It’s Hard to be Humble”, and “Texas in My Rearview Mirror”. Over the years Mac has headlined and sold out some of the biggest showrooms in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and Atlantic City, as well as Carnegie Hall in New York, dozens of State Fairs, arenas, colleges and concert halls all around the country. His successful television series, “The Mac Davis Show” on NBC, and many T.V. Specials over the years enabled him to be selected as the Academy of Country Music’s “Entertainer of the Year”, and The People’s Choice Awards’ very first “Favorite Male Singer”.